Lachie and Sacha ripped it up in DH. Evie suffered brutal luck once again. And Madigan just keeps setting new personal bests
The 2025 season has been trying at times for the Trek Factory Racing DH and Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli XC squads this season. They doubled down on promising youth, and with that have come a lot of expected ups and downs.
This past weekend’s World Cup round in Lenzerheide felt like the breakthrough that a lot of those young riders needed. In the men’s downhill final Saturday, Lachie Stevens-McNab got back on the podium, taking third place at just 0.8 seconds behind winner Amaury Pierron. He hadn’t been on the box since taking second in Mont-Sainte-Anne last October. After two close calls this year — fourth place finishes in Leogang and La Thuile — Stevens-McNab was right back where he belongs.
The whole TFR DH squad celebrating a breakthrough podium for Lachie Stevens-McNab.
Sacha Earnest charging towards her best finish yet as a first-year elite.
Meanwhile, teammate Sacha Earnest scored her best-ever elite World Cup finish in her first year up from the junior level, taking fifth. She was also fifth in qualifying, emphasizing the fact that, yes, she belongs within a shout of the podium and the very fastest women in the world. Earnest has steadily improved throughout the year, exactly like a young rider learning how to swim in the deep end should.
In XC racing, Evie Richards was spectacular again. A tough recovery from Covid after European Championships hindered her ability to perform at the World Cup round in Les Gets. She started to look like her old self again at World Championships, where she just missed a podium bid in short track due to a late puncture. Then in Lenzerheide, she looked back at full power. Richards took second in XCC racing to remain the overall World Cup leader, and then on Sunday, was making a potential winning charge before bad luck struck again: Another heartbreaking puncture.
Evie Richards all smiles as she crosses the line in XCO, even after suffering heartbreaking misfortune late in the race.
Madigan Munro is steadily improving towards the end of her first year as an elite, taking 15th on Sunday.
Richards finished fourth after a fast wheel change — a strong result, but one tinged by what could have been. She was emotional after the race:
“I’m normally quite positive, but it really upset me,” Richards said. “After the short track, that’s a really hard one to take. … I felt really strong, and it’s a shame because those days don’t come very often. I’m really gutted today.”
Gwendalyn Gibson is back to being a consistent Top 20 presence after a tough midseason stretch of racing.
Riley Amos is getting closer to finding his stride within a cutthroat elite men's field.
There’s no question that Richards is coming into the closing stretch of the season with momentum, bad luck aside. And the same can be said for her teammates. Madigan Munro scored the best result of her young elite career, taking 15th in Sunday’s XCO. Two days before, she took 20th in short track, also a career best in the discipline. Meanwhile, Gwendalyn Gibson appears to be finding her stride again after a difficult mid-season stretch of racing. She was 18th in short track and 16th in XCO in Lenzerheide, giving her five straight Top 20 finishes across the last two World Cup rounds and World Championships.
“It was a great day,” Munro said Sunday. “I just felt strong out there. I think maybe I was pushing it a lot, and probably faded a bit at the end, but you don’t know unless you try. So I’m super stoked.”
Gunnar Holmgren notched his best XCO finish of the season on Sunday.
Lachie's very shiny new hardware.
The weekend wasn’t all positive for TFR. Ollie Davis had his finals bid in his second qualifying run scrapped due to a crash, and teammates Chris Hauser and Matt Walker had to sit out due to injuries. In men’s XC racing, Riley Amos and Gunnar Holmgren are still trying to find their footing within a cutthroat elite men’s field, finishing 34th and 32nd, respectively, in Sunday’s XCO.
“I had a great start and was feeling really strong ticking off riders and had an unfortunate mechanical, but after a quick pit stop was making up a ton of ground and cracked back into the top 25 for a bit before a little bit of a final lap blow-up,” Amos wrote after the race. “Last two races have been a huge step forward in a lot of ways and I’m fired up for the opportunity the last two races in North America brings.”
Amos and Holmgren can take heart from the weekend. Their teammates showed how maintaining the grind, especially in the midst of struggles, pays off. With wind in their sails and just two World Cup rounds left — in Lake Placid from Oct. 3-5, and Mont-Sainte-Anne from Oct. 9-12 — TFR DH and XC are poised to end the season with a bang.
